Coke and chips: Coca-Cola hands out trackable refill bottles to students

The bottles contain tracking RFID chips to track use across its ‘Freestyle’ machines, where students can buy 100 drink brands such as Coca-Cola Classic, Diet Coke and Fanta, including low and zero calorie variants, caffeine free and still drinks, as well as Coke’s foreign variants.

The bottles are made by Whirley-Drinks Works, with chips using ‘Validfill’ dispensing technology. As well as ensuring that payment has been made, this technology will also allow Coca-Cola track how many times the refillable bottle is used and which drinks are most popular.

]Reading University dons hope the trial will reduce packaging and litter around campus.

Nick Brown, Head of Sustainability at Coca-Cola European Partners GB, said: “We’re hugely excited to have joined forces with the University of Reading on this project. As well as supporting a more sustainable packaging system on campus, the trial will allow us to explore consumer behaviours and attitudes towards refillable bottles, with the goal to help students and staff across the university to reduce their personal packaging footprint.

“As an industry leader in drinks manufacturing and supply, we value our work with organisations that share our ambition towards a more sustainable future, and we look forward to seeing how the programme develops over the coming months.”